Design

OUR STORY STARTS WITH

TWO CHALLENGES

Today, the Netherlands urban fabric faces two major challenges within its built environment.First, there is a large number of underperforming office buildings that will be rendered unusable by law in 2023 due to the country increasing its standard for energy labels. Secondly, the country currently faces a housing crisis and more specifically of affordable housing.

UNDER-PERFORMING
OFFICE SPACE

0 %

of all office spaces need to be
converted in the Netherlands

URGENT NEED FOR NEW
AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING

0 M

New homes needed
by 2030

VACANT OFFICE BUILDINGS

A TRANSFORMING RENOVATION

CONCEPT

MOR’s concept starts with the idea of retrofitting the existing and underperforming office buildings to transform them into multi-functional buildings and net-positive contributors to the built environment.

FROM CONSUMER
TO CONTIBUTOR

5 NET-POSITIVE OBJECTIVES

ENERGY +

By producing more energy than the building needs, the surrounding buildings can use that energy, or it could be stored in batteries in case of power outages.

AIR +

By filtering the outdoor air that comes into the building, we can achieve a much more comfortable and healthy indoor climate.

MATERIAL +

By using methods of ‘design for disassembly’ and choosing environmentally-friendly materials with high recycle/up-cycle values, the building becomes a material bank with each material and its specificities recorded in an open-source material passport.

WATER +

Rainwater is collected from the roof and is used to water the plants in the building, while treated grey-water is used for urban parks and farms, and black water is processed together with organic waste to generate energy.

BIOMASS +

Food, such as mushrooms, vegetables or herbs, is produced within the building through hydroponics systems found throughout the living floors and with a greenhouse on the roof.

INFINITELY

ADAPTABLE

1. MULTI-FUNCTIONAL

The multi-functional program planned for the renovation strategy ensures dynamic integration in the neighbourhood with public and commercial accessible to all, as well as shared and communal spaces for the buildings residents to share resources and develop more sustainable behaviour over time.

2. PLANNED FOR GROWTH

The flexibility inherent to the design strategy allows each floor to react to the users’ changing needs over time. For example, the winter garden space can be reduced in favor for higher density apartment units to accommodate more people as they decide to move to the building.

3. MODULAR

Inside each apartment is a combination of 4 elementary MOR-designed modules: a wall module, a kitchen-bathroom module, a bedroom-workstation module, as well as a facade module.

The flexible configuration of these core components inside the each apartment allows for a high level of customisation and great scalability.

DESIGN